Download Mesoamerica - HCC Learning Web

Pre-Colonial Period to 1500s
First Migration - Beringia

Mesoamerica
Middle America, refers to
Central and Southern
Mexico
Source: www.britannica.com
Source: huffingtonpost.com
 Intensive farming systems
Maize
 Sedentary life
Rise of towns and cities
Similarities of
Indigenous Empires
Similarities of Indigenous Empires

 Advanced architecture
 Pyramids and temples
 Hierarchical political
structure
 City-states and
empires
 Militaristic
 Raised armies
Ancient History

 Archaic (- 1800 BC)
Hunting, gathering, origins of village life, pottery,
figurines
 Early Preclassic (1800-1200 BC)
Egalitarian tribal societies with subsistence
agriculture
 Middle Preclassic (1200-400 BC)
 Olmec
 Late Preclassic (400 BC–150 AD)
 Teotihuacan
Agriculture more complex, development of
irrigation, greater productive specialization & social
stratification
Invention of the Long Count calendar, building of the
Pyramid of the Sun, advanced city planning
Ancient History

 Classic (150-650 AD)
Height of Teotihuacan influence
 Maya
Competing regional capitals
 Epiclassic (650-900 AD)
 Early Post-classic (900-1200
AD)
Aztecs reach the valley of Mexico
 Toltec
 Late Post-classic (1200-1521)
 Aztec
Formation of the Aztec Triple Alliance, Spanish
conquest, and fall of Tenochtitlan
Olmec

 Emerge around 1500 BC
 Patriarchal society
 Urbanization
 Multiple city-states
 Power based on
intermarriage
Source: wikipedia.org
 Engaged in trade
Olmec

 Maize
 Pottery
 Stone heads
 Decline
Teotihuacan

 Emerge around 400 BC
 City of gods
 North of Mexico City
 Population of 150,000-200,000
 Architectural settlement
 Power based on territory &
trade
 Strong central government
Maya

 Begin to gain dominance
around 250 AD
 Largest of Mesoamerican
groups
 State of relatively constant
warfare
 Tributaries
 Major urbanization
Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mayamap.png
 Chichen Itza
Maya

 Writing
 Hieroglyphs
 Calendar
 Codices
 Ritual activity
 Ball game
 Blood sacrifice
Source: www.livescience.com/25662-how-mayan-calendar-works.html
 Conception of the number
zero
Competing Regional Capitals

 Zapoteca
 Oaxaca
 Mixteca
 Tarascan
 Toltec
Toltec

 Present day Michoacan
 Descendants of the
Chicimecas
 Capital of Tula
 Quetzalcoatl
 “feathered serpent”
Source:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quetzalcoatl_telleriano2.jpg#/media/File:Quetzalcoatl_
telleriano2.jpg
Aztec

 Origin story
 Serpent and snake
 Mexica
 Tenochtitlan
 Advanced empire
Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Tenochtitlan,_1524.jpg
 Conquest not absorption
 Triple alliance
 Tenochtitlan, Texcoco,
Tlacopan
Aztec

 Education
 Patriarchal society
 Human sacrifice
 Huitzilopochtli
 God of war
 Quinto Sol
Source: www.crystalinks.com/aztecalendar.html